College students are faced with difficult and sometimes complex personal financial decisions, often without having the resources or training available to help them. Financial stress is causing students to experience anxiety and it is leading to poor performance in classes, reducing the number of credits taken, or leaving before obtaining a degree. Studies show that students may learn financial education best if it is currently relevant to their situation and if the information provided is succinct. The brief academic advising meeting is an incredibly useful moment to incorporate financial management and budgeting tips to encourage positive behaviors. This article offers practical ideas for the academic advisor to serve as a resource to students experiencing financial distress.
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Academic advising is the very core to education and sustaining students, but how academic advising supports student learning is unclear, especially international students who grow up in a foreign culture. Supporting international student learning in academic and career advising is rarely discussed in professional practices nor scholarly work. To build a sustainable model of retaining international students, universities and academic advising must proactively invest efforts to define and deliver outcomes related to international students’ academic success. This article is to introduce Syracuse University’s International Student Success Model, share strategies and initiatives developed and implemented to help achieve increased international student retention. The significance of this model will change the narrative of international student support services, most importantly, bridging the gap between academic advising and international education.
Research on academic advising has demonstrated a positive impact on many student success outcomes, including grade point average, retention, and graduation rates (e.g., Kirk-Kuwaye & Nishida, 2001; Molina & Abelman, 2000; Swecker, Fifolt, & Searby, 2013; Vander Schee, 2007). Knowing this impact often compels advisors to approach the task with as much effort as possible. Unfortunately, for professional staff advisors, high caseloads can quickly lead to exhaustion. For faculty advisors, advising is only a small part of their workload. In both cases, advisors need strategies to make advising more sustainable. In his pivotal book, Essentialism, McKeown (2014) teaches individuals to focus their efforts on the highest priority in order to have the biggest impact. McKeown’s (2021) follow-up book, Effortless, guides individuals towards making it easier to do those essential tasks. First is creating an effortless state, followed by engaging in effortless action, and then achieving effortless results. Through a series of questions, advisors will be able to apply these principles to their practice.
This essay covers one advising unit's approach to accelerating advisor onboarding and professionalization through the creation of a new advisor reading program. The author frames this contribution through the exemplarity/model framework. By outlining the program and the problem it helps solve for this unit, the piece provides readers with a model to think with (via analogical reasoning) when trying to solve similar problems in their own contexts.
College facilitates exploration, experimentation, and identity development, all of which can lead students to change programs of study. A change in major is often pivotal for students and assistance from advisors is critical. Change of major students are a distinct population with unique advising needs. Advising change of major students requires an intentional approach focused on helping them make an informed decision and achieve degree completion. Advisors serving specific major programs must develop deliberate advising practices for change of major students, especially while balancing this responsibility with other duties. Program-specific advisors can intentionally develop advising strategies for supporting change of major students that are ethical, efficient, and effective.
In Fall 2019, three academic advising professionals joined the NACADA Center for Research’s NACADA Writes program and embarked on a four-year journey of finding community through scholarship and long-term professional development. Through this experience, we walked together through the stages of the writing group process and supported each other through personal and professional growth experiences. This article reiterates the value collaboration and community can have in professional spaces and the importance of sharing growth experiences with others. Through NACADA Writes, we took an active position to champion our own growth and now use these experiences as conversation points when connecting with others in our personal and professional lives. Our hope is to leverage scholarship to encourage and motivate advisors and other higher education professionals to explore similar opportunities for themselves.
Student success hinges on the utilization of existing resources and educational opportunities effectively. With this in mind, academic support workshops teach valuable knowledge and skills that can significantly improve lifelong learning. Unfortunately, many students are reluctant to proactively attend such workshops, making it difficult for educational institutions to effectively harness their full potential. To address this issue, successful incentive and perk programs have been implemented at various universities and schools worldwide to motivate students to attend academic support workshops. The purpose of this article is to discuss the effectiveness of material incentives for students to attend academic support workshops in a challenged Global South context. The study uses a quantitative methodology to investigate the effect of offering material incentives on attendance at exam preparation workshops for EBIT students at The University of Pretoria. Tangible rewards in the form of exam packs, comprising of notebooks, translucent pencil cases, highlighters, pens, and lanyards were provided as material incentives for all students who attended the exam preparation workshops. The statistical analysis conducted indicates that the material incentive offered to students yielded a positive effect on attendance rates for the exam preparation workshops. This article reviews the necessity and efficacy of employing material incentives to promote student participation in academic workshops. Additionally, this paper explores various potential strategies and approaches to enhance the effectiveness of material incentives in challenged Global South context.
Advising as Teaching is a recommended model for advisors of artistic undergraduate students. Through this model, advisors can help guide artistic leaders of tomorrow into self-efficacy through use of principles related to metacognitive practices. It is important for students in the arts to be supported by advisors who have a keen understanding of the field, and of those who call the arts their professional home. The collaboration between the advisor and their artist-student throughout the undergraduate journey, as built through the “Advising as Teaching” model, can affect the student’s ability to reflect, to choose, to grow, to exemplify and to achieve. Advising students in the arts can have an incredible impact on the learner, and their community of practice, by choosing to engage in Learner-Centric Advising.
Research shows that academic advising is the most impactful when advisees are engaged in the process. Yet, as academic advisors we often find advisees who are not engaged. This article will examine student agency theory as a tool to engage advisees in academic advising. In this article, readers will learn strategies to 1) foster an advising relationship that centers on student agency, 2) promote student awareness of student responsibilities in advising and 3) maintain an advising space in which students are active co-agents. In fostering our advisee’s agency, we are able to unleash the various possibilities and opportunities for their academic and career success.
High-quality academic advising has long been recognized as a significant factor in student satisfaction, retention, and overall positive outcomes. However, the theories and philosophies guiding individual advising interactions have received more attention than the guiding principles behind the development of advising policies and procedures at the institutional and departmental levels. This article explores the concept of "cruelty-free advising," inspired by the notion of "cruelty-free syllabi," to examine and reevaluate advising policies and practices. Cruelty-free advising emphasizes trust in students, places them at the center of the advising process, and fosters a genuine concern for their success. This article provides practical considerations and questions for advisors and administrators to transition towards cruelty-free advising, ultimately contributing to a more supportive and empowering academic advising experience for students.
